of Heaven for the murder of Perfectus.[3]

[1] "Dolo circumventum," says Alvar, "Ind. Lum.," sec. 4.

[2] Johannes Vasaeus places this persecution (by a manifest
error) in 950, under Abdurrahman III., stating at the same time
that some writers placed it in 850, but, as it appeared to him,
wrongly: "Abdurrahman Halihatan rex Cordobae movit duodecimam
persecutionem in Christianos."

[3] Eulog., "Mem. Sanct." ii., ch. i. sec. 5.

The example set by Perfectus did not bear fruit at once, but no doubt
the evidence which it gave of the ease and comparative painlessness,
with which a martyr's crown could be obtained, was not lost upon the
brooding and zealous spirits living in solitary retreats and trying by a
life of religious devotion to cut themselves off from the seductive
pleasures of an active life.

The next victim, a little more than a year later, was a petty tradesman,
named John,[1] who does not seem to have courted his own fate. He had
aroused the animosity of his Moslem rivals by a habit which he had
contracted of pronouncing the name of the Prophet in his market
transactions, taking his name, as they thought, in vain, and with a view
to attracting buyers.[2] John, being taxed with this, with ill-timed
pleasantry retorted, "Cursed be he who wishes to name your Prophet." He
was haled before the Kadi, and, after receiving 400 stripes,[3] was
thrown into prison. Subsequently he was taken thence and driven through
the city riding backwards on an ass, while a crier was sent before him
through the Christian quarters, proclaiming: "Such shall be the
punishment of those, that speak evil of the Prophet of God."

[1] Eugolius, "Mem. Sanct." i. sec. 9; and Alvar, Ind. Lum.
sec. 5.

[2] So Eulogius, 1. 1., and Dozy, ii., 129. Alvar's account (1.
1.) is not very intelligible: "Parvipendens nostrum prophetam,
semper eius nomen in derisione frequentas, et mendacium tuum
per iuramenta nostrae religionis, ut tibi videtur, falsa
auribus te ignorantium Christianum esse semper confirmas."

[3] Or, according to Eulogius, 500.

So far we have had cases, where the charge of persecution, brought by
the apologists of the martyrs against the Moslems, can be more or less
sustained, but the next instance is of a different character. Isaac,[1]
a monk of Tabanos, and descended from noble and wealthy ancestors, was
born in 824, and by his knowledge of Arabic, attained in early